Too Late to Turn Back
by Dolphin4444wssc
Summary: When Ginny loses her temper in muggle studies, she lands herself in detention. She didn't realise that spoken words could kill you more that the cruciatus curse. Set in her 6th year with the Carrows.


**Ginny's POV**

Ginny Weasley was frustrated. She was sitting at the back of the muggle studies class, listening to Alecto Carrow yammering on about how inferior muggles were. She hated it; but she knew better than to speak up. She saw people coming back from detentions, looking broken bruised and battered, and not just physically. So, unfortunately, she just had to sit at the back of the class and do nothing while her blood boiled inside.

Alecto had just started talking about how the weapons that muggles created made them so savage and inferior to wizards, when Ginny just couldn't take it anymore. Blood coursing through her veins, she stood up.

"Is there a problem, Miss Weasley?" asked Alecto. All of the adrenaline from a few seconds ago left her as she felt the eyes of the entire class boring into her. "No professor." She replied meekly and sat back down.

"Good, because that is the second outburst this week and I don't want it to happen again. You are dancing very close to the edge, Miss Weasley, and you and I both know that I don't want to give you a detention."

_That's only because I'm a pureblood_, thought Ginny angrily. She just couldn't take this anymore. She had to do something about it. So she did one of the rashest things she had ever done (and that's saying something). She stood back up.

"Actually, there is a problem, _Professor._" Ginny (whose face was now as red as her hair) spat the word out with such venom that most people stared at her in shock.

"And what is that, Weasley?" asked Alecto, whose face was now turning a deep beetroot colour with anger.

"The problem is you. You're always ranting on about how savage muggles are, when they are more intelligent than you'll ever be! You couldn't live for a day without magic, and they can live their whole lives. You say that muggle weapons are savage when they are no more savage than the unforgivables. You should have a lot of experience with that, shouldn't you? You are just as bad as they are; scratch that, you're worse. You kill with no reason! While you were killing muggles, muggleborns, and occasionally the odd half-blood; did you ever realise that your precious half-blood? DID YOU? I don't care how close to the edge I'm dancing; I don't care if I fall off as long as you go down with me."

Alecto was purple in the face and trembling with pure anger and hatred while the rest of the class cowered away from him in fear. "Weasley," he started, his voice quavering "I hoped that we could avoid this situation; but you have gone way past the line. You will come to me this evening for detention. Now GET OUT OF MY CLASS!"

Ginny stormed out of the class and made her way back to the common room. She knew that she would pay for this in detention, but at that point she was too mad to care.

Later that evening, Ginny made her way to what was known to the Gryffindors as the 'torture room'. She was full of dread, but she knew that she couldn't run away. Neville still had the scars from when he tried two months ago.

Ginny arrived at the room, knocked, and entered. Standing inside was Alecto, just as promised. She indicated to a steel armchair, and Ginny sat down, immediately having her wrists, ankles and chest tied down with magic chains. Alecto started to talk.

"Now, I'm sure that you know why you're here. You're here because you need to be taught a lesson, and that lesson is to not talk back." When she finished there was another knock on the door.

Zacharias Smith walked robot-like into the room. Ginny was not surprised; he had turned to the death eaters a few months ago, along with so many others. The weird thing was how it was so sudden. One day he had been helping the DA with the graffiti; the next day he attacked Neville at the DA meeting.

Alecto walked out of the room after exchanging a quick nod with Zacharias, and throwing a dirty look at Ginny. When the door closed, Zacharias turned to Ginny, so that she could see his dead face and his hollow, empty eyes. Ginny knew that something was wrong; but before she had time to ponder what it was; Zacharias lifted his wand and muttered "Crucio."

Ginny screamed. She had felt the cruciatus curse before, but this one was so much more painful than the others. She tried to curl into a ball and shrink; but every time she tried, the chains became tighter to keep her in place. Ginny didn't know why, but Zacharias really wanted to cause her pain.

After what felt like hours of endless pain and screaming (but in reality was about five minutes), Zacharias briefly lifted the curse. Ginny looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

"Please Zacharias." She croaked, her voice hoarse from the screaming. "Come back to the DA. This is not the real you; you would never do this to anyone. I know that the Carrows have put a curse on you; but I also know that if anyone can break through that curse, it's you. You know that it's never too late to apologise.

Ginny thought that she saw a flicker of something across Zacharias' eyes. Then, quite suddenly he broke down in front of her.

"I can't" he said through his sobs. "You don't know what I've done, Ginny. I've hurt innocent people because I was scared. I let the fear take me over and I let the Carrows take my mind. It's too late for me to apologise, Ginny. I can't go back." Ginny tried to go over to comfort the sobbing boy, but the bonds stopped her and yet again tightened, almost restricting her breathing.

All of a sudden, Zacharias stopped crying. There were still tear tracks on his face, but his eyes were yet again hollow and empty.

"I have come this far and I will never go back. Because of this, I will become great and you are, and always will be, worthless." He turned on his heel and exited the room.

Before, Ginny thought that nothing was more painful than the cruciatus curse. But as the still tied-down girl sat there sobbing, she realised how wrong she had been.

**A/N: this was written for round 10 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.**


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